FAQ

First, it can increase revenue for your lab by dramatically reducing the time it takes to score sleep studies. So, if you are short-staffed, you need not hire the extra technologist, and if you are not short-staffed the current technologists’ time can be redirected towards other activities that increase revenue, such as home studies or better patient follow-up.

Second, particularly with our Michele system where reports can be generated within minutes, patients can get their results, and be seen by the physician, the morning after the sleep study.

Third, autoscoring provides measured and consistent results, something that is much more difficult to attain with manual scoring. We believe, however, that the best scoring is to be found when the software does the tedious work of scoring, but a human technologist edits the scoring using their own expertise. While this editing process is quite important, it only takes on average about 10 minutes.

Michele Sleep Scoring software uses highly original algorithms that replicate consistent, best-practice scoring techniques of experienced polysomnography technologists in accordance with American Academy of Sleep Medicine guidelines. Independent research confirmed that, even without editing, our software delivered automatic scoring results comparable to those of expert technologists selected from 5 top sleep centers in the U.S. This study concluded that the software, particularly if complemented with manual review of results, could increase laboratory efficiency and standardize polysomnogram scoring results within and across sleep centers.

Information on pricing for the Michele Sleep Scoring system can be found here. For large volumes there may be a discount. There is no minimal volume required to use our service, and scoring is charged on a per study basis. The Viewer (used to view and edit the results of the scoring) is provided with our service at no charge and can be installed on multiple computers.

Once exported to EDF, the studies are uploaded for scoring by each individual lab via the Viewer that will be provided with our service. Upon receiving the scoring for the patient file, minimal editing is required due to the accuracy of the autoscoring. Editing usually takes 5 to 15 minutes depending on the quality of the signals and number of events. The editing and control of the editing is in the hands of the lab technologist during the study review. At the end of editing the software generates a small file that lists all the scoring changes made by the technologist. This file can be used for quality control. Once reviewed, the report can be generated in seconds.

Upload time for a file depends upon the speed of your internet connection; for a typical internet connection this is approximately 10 minutes, but can be as little as one minute with some connections. The whole process can take anywhere from 3-15 minutes. Once scoring is complete a button appears on the screen within the Viewer, the scores can be downloaded by simply clicking this button. The scoring can then be reviewed and edited on the Viewer screen.

Yes. Each file has to be loaded up individually but this process typically only takes about one minute. Once the first file has been uploaded, the file that is pending will start to upload, and so on until all files have been uploaded. The first file can be reviewed and edited while other studies are being uploaded and scored. The process is very straightforward and can be demonstrated using screen-sharing software.

In addition to the preliminary scoring of your files to determine how accurate our scoring is, labs may try out the software risk and cost-free for a 30-day evaluation. After the 30-day evaluation, if you are not interested in continuing to use the Michele Sleep Scoring system for any reason, you may simply discontinue use without ever having paid us any money. YMT is only interested in providing this service to labs that find value in its use.

Michele Sleep Scoring software has been designed to be straightforward and easy to use. It can be installed on any number of computers in the client laboratory and can analyze any file as long as it is in European Data Format (EDF).

A comprehensive user manual, tutorials and ongoing technical support are included with purchase.

A fully customizable report can be generated using the Viewer software. Instructions on how to use the Michele Report Editor are provided in the User Manual, and training on it will be provided; it is very similar to word processing programs. YMT will also build custom reports upon request for a fee. A report interpretation template can be built within the Michele Report Editor, and then automatically generated for every file.

YMT has implemented a method whereby multicenter labs can create a master download directory that can be accessed by all of the sites simultaneously and quickly. This saves on bandwidth costs for labs sharing files, and ensures that there is no additional waiting time for each of the labs to get the results of the scoring.

YMT has been developing this software for over 5 years, and our goal has always been to create the most accurate scoring system possible. We recognize however that you may be skeptical, and we invite you to read an independently conducted research paper accepted by the journal SLEEP, to be published in March, 2013, that conclusively shows just how accurate our system is.

Our servers have multiple redundant backups, and can dynamically be scaled to handle our customers’ needs. When using the Michele Sleep Scoring system it is important to make sure you have a reliable internet service provider. Should your internet go down, almost always it is back up within a couple of hours. While some labs might opt to manually score files during such outages, it would not save much time given that it usually takes 1.5 – 2.5 hours to score one single file.